Milestone in commercialisation of additive manufacturing of membranes.
UK technology business Evove has signed a joint development agreement with Meta Additive, part of the Desktop Metal family, to produce an advanced additive manufacturing solution for 3D printing its ceramic Separonic membranes.
Part of Evove’s development plan for the Separonics product line is to create a blueprint that will underpin the global rollout and establishment of regional manufacturing hubs.
Chris Wyres, CEO of Evove, commented: “The signing of this collaboration agreement with UK-based Meta Additive is an important milestone in the commercialisation of our Separonics product line. They are recognised as a pioneer in the additive manufacturing sector and we are delighted to be working together to utilise their binder jet and materials technology. With a scalable and cost-effective manufacturing capability, we will deliver ceramic membranes with transformational performance gains and enhanced utility at a significantly lower carbon cost.”
Meta Additive has become part of the Desktop Metal group which has set out to make advanced 3D printing accessible to all engineers, designers and manufacturers around the world. Their systems range from smaller scale units for rapid prototyping, to industrial scale systems for high-speed mass production.
Simon Scott, CEO of Meta Additive, continued: “We utilise binder jet technology along with novel functional binders to provide advanced additive manufacturing solutions that will tackle current and future challenges. We are confident that our products will enable Evove to eliminate the issues associated with traditional ceramic manufacturing techniques, including shrinkage, energy intensive thermal processing and slow production speeds.”
The project will commence with the production of ceramic membranes. They have distinct advantages, especially in harsh environment with hot and acidic fluids, but up to now have been fragile in operation and costly to manufacture.
“3D printing ceramic Separonics with Meta’s AM technologies using the latest in material science means we can effectively eliminate the challenges, high cost and carbon footprint associated with traditional ceramic manufacturing processes,” Wyres explained. “Furthermore, 3D printing allows us to produce novel precision engineered architectures that optimise the fluid dynamics and integrity of the membrane, delivering game-changing performance, reducing energy usage for filtration and separation, and extending membrane lifetime.”
Evove aims to establish the first full-scale manufacturing process in the northwest of England before the end of 2022, to facilitate industrial testing of ceramic Separonics at a customer’s site shortly thereafter.
